Canterbury's ten river and water management zones
In 2009, ECan launched a collaborative, community-led approach to environmentally-sustainable water management, the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS). The strategy uses a catchment management approach across 10 zones. (A ‘catchment’ is literally an area where water ‘caught’ from the air (precipitation) and land (surface runoff from farms, roads, cities and towns) flows into the rivers and aquifers in that area.)
Because of their importance, braided rivers are the only ecosystem to have its own set of targets in the CWMS. One target under ‘Natural Character’ is to implement actions to correct the decline in useable braided river bird habitat.
For biodiversity outcomes see the online mapping tool, Canterbury maps or an overview on this website.
If you are interested in conservation work on braided rivers in the area where you live or work, you can either contact a river care group, your local DOC office, or click on the catchment zone maps below. These will take you to the ECan website where you can find information about what projects each zone committee is working on and how you can help.
ECan also manage a number of biodiversity projects across the region.